Self-employment method
Taxi and Limousine Service
1,254,689 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 1,254,689 people who filed under this code in 2022, 37.89% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 1,254,689 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 292,315 | 23.3% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 183,024 | 14.6% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 283,262 | 22.6% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 230,990 | 18.4% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 183,566 | 14.6% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 78,657 | 6.3% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 2,493 | 0.2% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 382 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $18,049 for the year — $1,504 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.
1,254,689 people filed under this code — the scale of a major occupation, held together by nothing but tax returns. Very few are doing it full time, and the receipts distribution below is the evidence.
6.5% cleared $100,000 in receipts. That is a meaningful upper tier and it is worth asking what separates them, because it is rarely effort alone.
Independent passenger transport suits people who can fill a vehicle reliably, since the economics turn entirely on load factor rather than on hours driven.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $5,583, top quarter over $44,743: 8.0x, or $3,263 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Taxi and Limousine Service earns under $5,583 — $44,437 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this on a vehicle payment that assumes full loads; empty running is what actually happens.
475,401 filers out of 1,254,689 — 37.9% — reported under $10,000 in gross receipts in 2022. At that share the bottom band is not a warning about beginners; it is a description of a large part of the field.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
From $5,583 to $44,743 is 8.0x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $18,049 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
The middle half of this field earns between $5,583 and $44,743. That is $39,160 of range, with $18,049 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $44,743. Reaching it from the $18,049 midpoint is $26,694 a year; reaching it from the $5,583 that the bottom quarter of Taxi and Limousine Service earn is $39,160.
From $18,049 the drop to $5,583 is $12,466 and the climb to $44,743 is $26,694. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Taxi and Limousine Service takes $8.67 in revenue — $2.68 at the bottom quarter and $21.51 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
Counted straight off the return: 292,315 filers grossed under $5,000, 183,024 took $5,000 to $9,999, 283,262 took $10,000 to $24,999, 81,532 cleared $100,000 and 2,875 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $18,049 midpoint for Taxi and Limousine Service is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $18,049 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Taxi and Limousine Service, the hourly figure is $18,049 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else